It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Google Video Link |
Originally posted by jonnyc55
How much it cost to venture out into antartica?
If i had money i would love to go .
Originally posted by truthbeetellin
Ill go if anyone has $$ to fund my expedition....
Originally posted by Primevisitor
I am ready to embark on this voyage. I am not one who sits and waits for something to happen. I have ben sitting idle for a few years keeping up the appearances of a 'normal' life. I have been chosen to find and reveal.
Waiting for the ticket in the mail..
Once the cruiser arrived in Antarctica, it was based out of Little America, Byrd's station on the continent. But it was quickly discovered that the vehicle's smooth tires developed very little traction in the Antarctic snow. It took only a small amount of snow in front of each tire to stop the “unstoppable.”
Though two spare tires were mounted on the front axles to provide extra traction, nothing seemed to help. That's until someone discovered the vehicle operated better in reverse. The cruiser's longest venture was 92 miles—all driven backwards.
Byrd's expedition extended into 1941, and with World War II pressing, Congress would not approve funding to continue. In May 1941 the group returned to the United States, its experiments terminated.
What happened to the cruiser? It was left behind in Antarctica in an underground ice garage. In the late 1940s another expedition found the vehicle and discovered it needed only air in the tires and some servicing to make it operational. It was again rediscovered in 1962, still perfectly preserved.
Where is Byrd's snow cruiser now? As of 1985 there has been speculation as to its whereabouts. Antarctic ice is in constant motion, and the ice shelf the cruiser was on is constantly moving out to sea. In the mid-1960s, a large chunk of the Ross Ice Shelf broke off and drifted away. The break occurred right through Little America. On which side of the break was the snow cruiser? No one seemed to know at the time.
The end of this story is still uncertain. Either the vehicle is buried under many, many feet of ice—where it might possibly be discovered by future explorers. Or it could be resting on the bottom of the Southern Ocean.
Whatever its fate, it was still a magnificent machine. But what a flop!
By the early 1960s the ice sheet supporting the Snow Cruiser had migrated seaward and broken off. By all accounts, Dr. Poulter’s hopeful but impractical invention now lies at the bottom of the Ross Sea. There will never be another vehicle like her.
Originally posted by MavRck
Yes these are most interesting... I have them pinned on GE ... Strange...
I'll give 500$ to anyone willing to jump into it with a parachute and glowsticks...